Movielogr
Boxing Helena (1993)
Directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch
Twitter Facebook Google+Overview
A top surgeon is besotted with a beautiful woman who once rebuffed him. Unable to come to terms with life without her, he tries to convince her that they need each other. She has other ideas, but a horrific accident leaves her at his mercy.
Rated R | Length 107 minutes
Actors
Julian Sands | Sherilyn Fenn | Bill Paxton | Art Garfunkel | Betsy Clark | Kurtwood Smith | Nicolette Scorsese | Meg Register | Bryan Smith | Marla Levine | Kim Lentz | Lloyd T. Williams | Carl Mazzocone Sr. | Erik Shoaff | Lisa Oz | Ted Manson | Adele K. Schaeffer | Amy Levin | Matt Berry | D. Taylor Loeb
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03/14/2020 | TV | DVD | Library | 5 stars |
| (Average) 5 stars |
Viewing Notes
This is a good bad movie. tbh having never seen it but hearing how controversial it was at the time I was under the impression that it was a good movie. It’s not a good movie but it is quite something to watch. I had always avoided it in the past b/c it sounded rather gruesome. It came up in my TL the other day noting that the OOP dvd was going for ridiculous amounts on Amazon. So I found it in my library system and requested it (again, my library network is home to so many now OOP movies).
Firstly this is so very 90s. This was Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut. It reminds me a lot of a Red Shoes Diary episode. Sherilyn Fenn was kind of a B-level “it girl” at the time (having done Twin Peaks and posed in Playboy in the years prior) and she’s really good at portraying this awful yet super sexy object of desire. She has a fine line to be both a sympathetic character yet one you also despise.
Julian Sands, however, just seems so oddly cast in this role and plays it so goofy that it cannot be believed. That any ultra rich doctor would behave like this is quite comical (and his performance is comical). The point where the movie loses me is also the main crux of the premise; when Sands takes Helena captive in his own home after the accident. Of course, the movie is so very weird that it remains fascinating to watch but it’s just so corny.
It’s fun to see a mullet sporting Bill Paxton acting like a little older Chip from Weird Science. Was also neat to see Nicolette Scorsese who is the counter girl in Christmas Vacation. Here she’s the call girl and a nurse.
If this didn’t lean so heavy into the bananas sexual stuff it would be a dynamite B-Fest entry. There’s so much to laugh at here and I can imagine the crowd eating this up, esp. Sands’ acting.
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